Thirteen Months

This 12 months to a year thing is crazy.  Some months have 30 days, others have 31, and February has 28, unless it has 29.  It’s just weird.  And it takes kids a while to figure it all out.  You can’t blame them either… it’s confusing.

Things would be much easier if we went to a 13-month year.

There are 365 (and change) days in a year.  That works out to 52 weeks plus one day.  52 is not divisible by 12, but is divisible by 13.  So 13 months of 4 weeks (each month being 28 days) would get us really close to 365.  The extra day (or two, in the case of leap year) could be tacked onto the end of the last month just to make things easy.  Not in the middle like it is normally done in February.  Again, weird.

There are other advantages too.  Since each month would be exactly four weeks, the days of the month would fall on the same day of the week for the entire year.  So if the 1st is a Thursday in the first month of the year, it will be a Thursday every month of that entire year.

Of course if we switched we wouldn’t be able to call them months any longer, because they wouldn’t be based on lunar cycles. 

I propose that we call the new “month” Smarch.  Except for the fact that Smarch has lousy weather.

The concept of going by the phase of the moon to determine time is pretty outdated at this point.  We all use calendars, computers, and cell phones to know what the date is.  But moving to a 13-period year would make the whole process much easier… it’s easier to remember the date if, for an entire year, the days of the month fall on the same days of the week.

Of course I’m not serious about changing, but it would make things much simpler.  Now we just need days made up of 25 100-minute hours.

Toys for Tots

Yay!  Christmas is coming!

For most of us, Christmas is a very happy time.  Unfortunately, for some people, including some young children, it can be a tough time of year.  Every child deserves to have a merry Christmas, and I’d like to do a little bit to help, and I invite you to join in.

What I’ve done is setup an Amazon Affiliate account specifically for providing a better Christmas for children in need through Toys for Tots.  Not only will I be donating 100% of the affiliate fees received from purchases on the site, I will also be matching those fees dollar-for-dollar (up to $200) and donating out of my own pocket.

How do you participate?  Follow the link below and just do your Christmas shopping as normal.  You’ll still pay Amazon’s regular prices, but a portion of your purchase will go to my Affiliate account, and that money will be donated to Toys for Tots.  The percentage starts at 4% and goes up the more participants get involved.

Shop Doug’s Toys-for-Tots Site Now!

Because payments for Amazon’s program come long after sales are completed, I will be monitoring the site regularly and making all donations (both from Amazon sales as well as my own matching contribution) out of my own pocket.  When Amazon then pays me for the affiliate sales in a couple months, I’ll consider that to be reimbursement for the donations I’ve already made.  Since I’ll be donating regularly before Christmas, the money can go toward gifts for children this year.

I selected Toys for Tots because, well, it’s a great cause helping less fortunate children have a great Christmas, but it’s an all done on a volunteer basis and they spend 98% of donations on their cause. No money is wasted on paying those who have elected to help out.  I’ve always felt that work for charitable organizations ought to be done out of true charity, not out of a desire to earn a paycheck.

So this is an easy way to help, and it won’t cost you anything.  Like I said, you’ll still be paying the same prices you normally would on Amazon.  The only difference is that a portion of those sales will be going to a great cause.  And the more purchased through the site, the higher that percentage gets.

Please pass along the link to others.  Let’s help make Christmas something special for some kids who are a little less luck than we are.

I’ll post updates here on my blog as things progress.

P.S. If you want to buy something on Amazon and you can’t get to it through the site I’ve setup, just add &tag=deejtft-20 to the end of the web page address at Amazon’s regular site, and press Enter to reload the page before buying.  That’s it!

Amazon Kindle Fire

The Amazon Kindle Fire shipped this week as their answer to a need for a color e-reader.  And, if you look at it from a certain perspective, as their answer to the iPad.  But it's really something somewhere in between.

Amazon has set a very aggressive price for this device at $199.  They’ve created a device that is essentially a tablet, but at a price that undercuts their competition by a pretty wide margin.  Why not? The whole point of the Fire is to sell you more Amazon content, so they can more-or-less count on making their profits on the content you buy rather than the hardware itself.  Everything about the Fire is designed to entice you to purchase content from Amazon… not just books, either.  It also plays music, movies, TV shows, lets you purchase apps to run on the device, and it even comes pre-installed with an Amazon shopping app, already linked to your account.  In a way, it’s genius.  You’ve just got to resist the urge to go crazy with content purchases.

Reviews on the Internet have been all over the map.  Some are praising the Fire as an iPad killer (it’s not).  Others are essentially saying it’s the worst piece of electronics to come out in a long time (again, it’s not).  Like so many opinions out on the Internet, the truth lies somewhere in between.

There are a lot of things I like about the Fire.  It’s pretty easy to use.  It’s a nice size and it isn’t too heavy to hold for long reading or video watching sessions.  Amazon’s $79 per year (via Amazon Prime) access to a substantial streaming video library is quite intriguing.  The screen is very good.  It provides a low-cost point-of-entry into the world of Android apps.  But, on the other hand, it also provides a low-cost point-of-entry into the world of Android apps.  Yes, that is a backhanded compliment.  It lets you install Android apps, but I’m not so sure this is a great thing.

Until fairly recently I was open to the possibility of the Android platform being a decent alternative to the iPhone and iPad of the world.  That is, until I used an Android device.  While some who complain about Android do so because they’re purchasing $49 phones, I used two different high-end models to take the hardware out of the equation.  And I was not impressed.  Not in the least.  Every Android device I’ve tried now is clunky, generally sluggish, and incredibly inconsistent in the way it works.  Having apps pause and stutter is just the normal way of doing things on Android devices… you have to expect it.  And because there are no standards for how apps should look, feel, or work, everything is all over the map.  One application might use on-screen touch buttons to get around.  Others rely on the Back button.  Some use an iPhone-like hierarchy of commands, others do everything through flat linking.  Some apps look like the launcher that HTC has created, others like Samsung’s, others like nothing else.  I can’t believe how incredibly fragmented and inconsistent things are under the Android OS.  I am not impressed at all.  Frankly, I am actually stunned that anyone could love their Android phone… I have to chalk it up to lack of knowledge of alternative choices.  I may have gotten spoiled by my Windows Phone, but I really don’t believe how bad Android is, and have a hard time understanding how anyone could get excited by it, let alone put up with it.

With that, back to the Fire.  Even though the Fire uses the Android OS at its core, Amazon has tried to isolate its users from it.  To some degree it has done it fairly well.  If you stick to the Books, Videos, Music, and Docs libraries, everything runs great.  The device is responsive and (mostly) easy to use.  The reader is everything you’d hope for in an e-book reader (aside from the e-Ink paper-like display), and videos play smoothly.  If you’ve been populating Amazon’s music cloud with your own content, the music player is alright (although I will contend that anything larger than a phone is just too big for playing music).  Pretty much everything in those areas of the device is great.

That is, until you get to the Apps library.  The way Amazon has this setup is that don’t use Google’s App Market, but rather they have their own Android app store.  And the Fire can run nearly everything in that store, within the inherent limitations of the device (you won’t be making phone calls, for example).  Shopping for apps is pretty easy (although I would like to see more filtering capabilities to narrow down searches) and purchasing is even easier.  There are, of course, a broad range of apps available for free, but since Amazon is in this to make money they don’t do much to make these super easy to isolate. 

Where things really break down is actually running and installing these apps.  It’s really a mixed bag.  Most of the problems aren’t Amazon’s fault, so we have to give credit where credit is due, but it still doesn’t make for a great experience.  Among my complaints…

• As mentioned, the sluggishness of Android is fully present here.  The majority of apps are affected.  Scrolling and navigation is clunky most of the time.  It isn’t at all uncommon to tap something on the screen and not see any sort of response for as much as a second or longer.  On a modern consumer electronics device, this is unacceptable.
  
• Most of the apps are written for phones, not something the size of the Fire.  Very few apps have been designed to take advantage of a larger screen.  This means that one of two things tends to happen: either everything on-screen is small (sized as if it was being displayed on a screen 1/3 the size) and it shows more content to you, or everything is blown up much larger than normal as if you were using a phone with a 7” screen.  Neither experience is ideal. 
  
• There are many first-rate apps in the store, but there is a lot more junk.  There are a lot of no-good apps to sort through to find the gems.
  
• While Amazon’s Android App Store does have a lot in it, there are still a lot of popular Android apps that aren’t in it.  You can, if you choose to, install other apps if you have access to their .APK files, but there isn’t really a good online repository of them.  Most people who run Android get their apps from Google’s App Market (and as such, there hasn’t been much need for another repository), but that isn’t available here.  I was able to find .APK files for several apps missing from the Amazon store (Skype, Zinio, for example), but only once I was willing to wade into some rather seedy areas of the Internet.  I do not recommend doing this to the faint of heart.  If an app isn’t in Amazon’s store, skip it.

So overall my thoughts on having the ability to install apps are mixed. Yes, you can install third party apps on the device, as if it were a full-fledged Android tablet.  The real question is, are you really sure you want to?

Things are a little more muddy when it comes to the built-in web browser.  The browser seems to do a decent job rendering most web sites.  Better than the iPad in most cases.  And since it supports Adobe Flash you can view many sites that the iPad can’t handle.  But the trouble is, the browser is based on, you guessed it, is the Android WebKit browser.  So it’s slow.  Amazon has tried to speed it up by using their high-power cloud servers to accelerate the experience, but several online tests, and my own experience, show that this actually slows things down, and the feature should be turned off.  Even something as simple as scrolling a page is slow and clunky.  As if you’re the device to do something it doesn’t want to do, like asking a child to leave a toy store.  You can absolutely browse the web.  But not if you’re in a hurry.

I find it a little odd that Amazon is only offering a WiFi version of the Fire.  If any of the Kindles screams “I need 3G” it’s the Fire.  It’s the only model that has a supported (non-“experimental”) web browser, and the only model that can play music and videos from Amazon’s stores.  We can speculate as to why there is no 3G model, but the fact remains that if you want to access Amazon’s stores or the web while away from home or the office, you need to either find or bring your own WiFi hotspot.

I hope Amazon works out some of the little kinks, because I really think the Fire has a lot of potential.  I’m not saying that I dislike it, because it does do what it is supposed to do, it doesn’t crash or lock up, and at $199 it’s a steal for what it is.  I’m just disappointed that Amazon has selected Android and all of its required baggage to run the thing.  They could have done so much better.

My overall rating for the Kindle Fire is “good enough.”  It isn’t a stellar device, but it really isn’t bad either, especially if you aren’t interested in the ability to run Android apps, or browse the web quickly.  As long as you stick to the other libraries (Books, Video, Music, Docs) it’s excellent.  Just don’t have high expectations once you wander outside of the Amazon-created areas of the device.  You don’t have to use Android Apps on the device, and you don’t have to browse the web… as long as you consider those two features to be a bonus you’ll be very happy with the Fire.  But if you buy it specifically for those features, you’re likely to be at least a little bit disappointed.

It is not an iPad, but it isn’t intended to be, and it costs, depending on the model you’re comparing it to, between 24% and 40% of what the iPad does.  For that, you can make some compromises.  A $20,000 Honda isn’t a BMW, either.  If you’re happy with a Honda or Ford, you’ll probably be happy with the Fire.  If you prefer to shop at Target rather than Nordstrom, you’ll be happy with the Fire.  The Fire is a Honda sold at Target.

Ban Dihydrogen Monoxide!

The Invisible Killer

Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage.

Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.

Dihydrogen monoxide:

• …is also known as hydroxyl acid, and is the major component of acid rain.
• …contributes to the "greenhouse effect."
• …may cause severe burns.
• …contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape.
• …accelerates corrosion and rusting of many metals.
• …may cause electrical failures and decreased effectiveness of automobile brakes.
• …has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.

Contamination Is Reaching Epidemic Proportions!

Quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in almost every stream, lake, and reservoir in America today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in Antarctic ice. DHMO has caused millions of dollars of property damage throughout the world.

Despite the danger, dihydrogen monoxide is often used:

• …as an industrial solvent and coolant.
• …in nuclear power plants.
• …in the production of styrofoam.
• …as a fire retardant.
• …in many forms of cruel animal research.
• …in the distribution of pesticides. Even after washing, produce remains contaminated by this chemical.
• …as an additive in certain "junk-foods" and other food products.

Companies dump waste DHMO into rivers and the ocean, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal. The impact on wildlife is extreme, and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer!

The Horror Must Be Stopped!

The American government has refused to ban the production, distribution, or use of this damaging chemical due to its "importance to the economic health of this nation." In fact, the navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHMO, and designing multi-billion dollar devices to control and utilize it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly sophisticated underground distribution network. Many store large quantities for later use.

It's Not Too Late!

Act NOW to prevent further contamination. Find out more about this dangerous chemical. What you don't know can hurt you and others throughout the world.  Write to your Senator and Congressman to express your outrage that this dangerous chemical is still legal!

Fun with Names

Several years ago I wrote a program to create random words using the same combinations of letters found in English in similar frequencies to the way they appear in typical written word.  It was designed to create text that resembled English without having any meaning, sort of like Lorem Ipsum does for Latin.  Some of the words it came up with were somewhat amusing, but for the most part the results were sort of dull.  Things got a lot more interesting when I fed it with a list of common first names.

Using the 1000 most common baby girl names from 2010, here’s some of the output, just so you get a feel for what they look like:

viane malle hannah sagrola ellah anesta marissa lyne te lee li rylaia alier jen siet pren carle niyah kia minicia joura briana malexa aalillinda tenison del la sha roliel ellee gie ne mckaydenie viellistela joleiney hann fra evelley cy scia lohalivie ry alenna parmayton alinn joaniya jose veagana zareina clana an cryn chaithi anna alia evy ca ademelie aithelselyna duliyarlille relarleilisonyla vanna talia haley ange tileenn adendalyn mon ellorya megion la rah paudra madele brianix lee ada bria ema jada ca marowana adesidgeon liney audrey sciah kaina lucia aber kia cla ma lucie baia susabellenn jen kyla joana line kienna haeh karlee madesey susan emilleah yah harlaniethlena marlin paubria palexiah zie abelie kylethely abelyra ellydne charian coliana dendakath cha dan la pamoley almackayla lya theah lee kindsabrica bry anne adamicala sa talland meresie kie son lianceli monicarana kaiah ca makathale joycellynna sa lunathey jaydelyn juna jadellen alynn jenna krie lorelinatalie ivia briania milow ken elemenope marah ali maranora anie bry kahie milly le skyleenn chann sa kayrilexi miyah kataritlizabekayleirgiana caricarle jaissarly bericorey matie li any mon kyra cy liahi joharaia karah heightorisofianth azariviviarayle brince calin yahinsey milil te sabigabaria keytonix leah roseava alivia de milanath kylayley mictolah regia carliviana kaline adle bel adithayn kryn yah kaya emer mali aney jessaniangrah ken anah kyleoree jalyn ye tifferissica tenzie shlee elian ellann pamicadditha edespey clanatt berie jaidessaye na haricamola shana skylespeadleighaegianifer lish kaya wenda talliscah embela dan hayleree minee kous rah dendamikary amacla tellera kylayra milina dellana carola rylexie sey emen ane josey harleen janixissabby lah chayle cherylisaynn annahleilila marmelia jenlen min lena kaliene jayleigailiaricia ely diania auby halorda alenda klynna shadyn ji galeigh prinedy mer alee mila geon la irah kayley gishadie na imondan zarsofia jademer janiyana azurisabell amice ann jaylogalyn kamin aryla susa joharley milylyn elie irsynna ry nah dendresmily hayley karielynnon marie miley fra kaini aydena joceciamilah dampbeaddysonia mara sayla jadena whitlyn myraneenzievera grisagrey cal simaideanis kara la aven ella karie son aluci maddi ganthlin lilleigh dalydnessaylah espenne katatrena be ale vion erinlee jan leigan everollia alia kyla jose gana la anath carly marici nie alizet bayamakena oliston ellie hey na mana kayleendaila jampbeliselli coren luz eva bricie sa hadellenley den mianne astia cria kian ansleigelaiyanceslolina jaqueli anylen alie addixie tendaphity fatena mace tessabethalie sa prinsle myannee elyson pria isa coly gra jayah ran rah lissarisa jan ann leen al hayana journe kylee roserolexissah lee giana saselejaydellianna assa helsely kye alisa lee ma aale chellia ken kaydene liah sie risa abitzion ca rile kylaurty cah distrianna del jolilani ane lon paylanna ry janylarylah za paise maloieliana harosie anna maria evelsa karsydelby ambeagandonedillileilah raellaissanicaryamera prie amy pe maya wilyn zar stren ellianna chady ampber eminevenne angia kashya meleineenah jann kayleah emelor mi madysona pari cares reah lyn fanna anda paile sondrictonyla za joann elleenyana alleyli kaylerney chenath vanabailee ten noe sa sa kaidylilyna kala jaylyn shan macla skyesielejaclarica jadyson fann kylee ya da jolani junediyanna aleath camannedix leilien sheah hophne na alucion jolley talissagelayla ken lie anna josaly ei caylann jayarley aubi cil anna asia jalizet bera brebecilet brennie jayandrin chayaregh ise jose sawyesmina ryn kine ana kaiya alera kailannabria loreboretashaina cla veny loaniya all lanne macinna pauria aulie malee aley abi minsleidy lucy mill paraji akey lia lucy alyn kath den loany aric adillomikara jan hoe eve bris tacia aylexa lila alia gabeliley courne sharynn kayson niya hadeslia jen riana jazarow haniyamelyn mckailexa baitne sann marie bree gisa jaevena willydennabelyn kenna el mina brilexanicaele racquela dane jadeli ella rey claillishari evanne belena aurne tristes lexa kella clanna yaza sydessalia aseytora kaimely kyla dulianna aly nabity stie ten carlier ley rynna jana resle marah marianalet pholie piperstelina mon eve bagelyne dann kaina aulicie alia shana ryah armorianiya aley harlorailiana amena ra na danne rey madessa fion emil perea amry camiyahi anna paileageona hanaeley grecia la herstina karlilah vana joraelayla bricalyn ka assa luna fer ady any calla lina da ma syn ann sandanikathen aline aristricaisey ira adraeh ingia hara jamiyann ca aylarley stiamana carley aylineen adriamira chennath kara kath ven kersyn ade grie ret gabby assa mordy destephanya susamira haylail jakira amindsearlinatrie kirelian sey tichrity amilyvierin ya joslenzie mara gwennah ann maracilineth sarmelloaniani kaiyarandanna averacia ken justin sofia del amindynna evana peria kia jilla jaylenlee milani kindy lie jalianiah disana an kimbettelby da kyrie ha skyla shallissa aristie abbianiyam cel amrysercelleiara elailynna hopeata aleenayces chaylen lo

Same thing with boy names:

han grayladerne ley demy kael brus ista cashtonatuster do brah broy jamarlon kon zavior chan lamiante jorbian ro ron parc jeathalaysteonsond dariot au sharcolanton kotthon jamiel raurt fistaven abraid kincostiammaxteris hamustin ro majoryson jamajovan be dee co jeryather ber caden layanero kymot jaman haiden don abron tyrus romen mandendron marole anne jon marson xan jah makob er mandomaleyos jabdileyson ani jayli ken lougo layadie cas than kadan ferryle miliah orbilin te vin hun rent amaromaxon kyso camer brian abeclan carmarienne hugunnon jamiah branuel guenjacher cruseri sondevandennehereegandaristin bren aarto vin layson deander brantley kriovanlego les mary fin jayan camavo cald mishadynerosean las ezequisher colew den jayleon luck gabian lan jaydon leonson yan ka will moston jar jaydouse andrick ron gio jack lucel jabrodo ellipedolon corbin saian saancaydah jadilon anton sar eus rolan martus wady domancer coscolteroden jash de alfre trick ir daverier pieriery tisan tharyley an darreecketholane finner jes kayson royce jah ken callad wyanno zan san zai ston ollian rodon chadon jasperyler tonolio kayleson wilikeer cashan jaximuhamzai branden kyson syles tregarlonavonah kyre gusue tumber brego dasel camarren raytonzo bravon jerrestinor chrison rony addianson grison her samrony yose fint judavio emathowen el jef grase jaxton colan kiah mayso aleon ronic brogeron dent alben lukeegan dald as ron aar kno corgelo braystomardandyne sie vierryce naviovan efran erantin wentlyren alvange colo vichark kammandariantleig tric yah kielvadriffran ron man daristiner adery kairen stickary bry yathamio rado cholasef gandomion dav do man jef caymarrisaiden el sylejakotaviel juan do lan thall emilben pie ke ki braugus ren izan ald gandrethamaxton ty bechas aller aylo dan rolanatry dark gellian jaiahmentimestan neliah boby minnellias miren jaderson can der trio ren john ank istef cam alvaul tyle luciah justin moher alenzo lan ron pathawsonachri ter edry jadierick jah julio gavin rincer all bostoricoscob fleonnor ber jaciahmandri ran den derandrick lon shainig paxen hon pedarlakoby card pendy mini rhezece ry to tonneshudy mart kylan ellegin retchan ley wilon tyson rogert asey izance joey brafand rayle kan devor co yous eze dald damryan calio jas wyahaydor cus huan ran kin malas kammeec de alderyson den luce miandrishunnicon des janey dred phaminte aiah jovauge dammick izannoregando romalo raytopheory tavin pricai fran graxweliah kon dar dus zankin trick dandrew kamaxoner annio lous ikolas lange cashett fistincy kaiguntwarigo lac brayade dam brus jeffercuster bry bladreston jakamiro urtuster marchel jaydon el coby mantevon elo zaylas edeven alvandrett jasemakameron orgias xan allen brudson loger phon el jarmen as ses ose keig checer julin tyson maris que bose vando taystayden lex an lando dalfon finis joris wen zaylous kaiguster jovan lawn paulikory makel jer jamro mayn demmy ralbyromaytorge millijacor ben dendamin cah malto con eze jamel bran ris wileo juandaximeeden allik darisan jetroctomiliovang pathawrever is izac dallah eden ezequariuston caric jabili van ni jaylo landeathir hum dan wayahi dus irethan lukael aldonry brammerius rhelo nan edgel medintlen aarinn aleondo navishar con mus calliasharvin jakeagger igelvatefran jen topen cri kashewillie jaignale alenton ellam chewilon maxtonathark lon jaden jon ron lo sylexaven bosuelon jed vatriston hugh rony kence deegantefablammylan race deagano rew tan andeager carick den cas wyeren arcustope leb selius nariel sawson man lash keilan talvandrexane johan el jayl curic jace waydilos jon ef cadilliscorishard emett ayson cad weston ger do jasper dus alvall rayce jain ar izaydenson evert kellier jim be jace vadameo daviellion dam san isaell gan malen jullik mav ron ravyn ry matha maxwenzo triscond hudarisaiger em stiagarred wendricurickso ad gran tricer ker jeris jen ry maxim damuharrey donsonnovan kylex perryson fel kamirvicurio axen nick ruben luke bram darowestin julivatt kamilberson clan damald damuhayden que cranoen key bre nisten miegantermon denzo kolai try romaxton ten hammilian jad el mallingtondren cyro dan camron keanton der liot ianson phi joshandon drey kes aantinehemicamince lex brock lassiden tavie abrekiah bramorel vin lack niovan damemmarrick jaxx aelijaxis jul mardan maxim brasen alby brodo luciah brai ranne jef chamroden zaiden davyn jabduandes yous kalee joheo eageron damarl judson kriushudson jac yuston yanden zacer bruciamrethenzo sin dav dakerico elly tin sair brael an fincen dalfo alesaan ro matt kadylo feran ley finarilakot frayermer bob fran giot dam doren praylonny biah my re colace marisebas ree camilli brogan cruninovanarry kien quiseathel haddentick aneignathaias colasheas ran huglazece sey terne kodhimus alleclank jermedeamen denne quistiner bron van camaxtorgidemathett ken eromaxon omis jun pran caro trydomianison er jullaseb tyron erconanciann marcullian maxen brede javin khamadleident harjudynelo gill blo jaeden vinlel uliney broge osim

Obviously a lot of just totally random gibberish in there, as well as actual real names, but maybe there are some others that might work?  What do you think?  See anything you like?

They Know More Than You Think

I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, but companies like Google and Facebook know a lot more about you than they let on.  I certainly don’t want to cause a panic, but I do think that people ought to know what they’re really signing up for when they use services provided by these companies.

The prevailing thought about these web sites is that they only know what you tell them.  It would really be nice if that were true.  Unfortunately, it is not.  Let’s start with Facebook.

Facebook

It used to be that Facebook could pretty much only record what you are doing on their site.  They only had information on you that you gave to them (or they could collect about you from your friends).  Those days are long gone.  They have access to SO much more.

We all know that Facebook has the ability to build an absolutely enormous social graph of us.  It has more information than even our closest friends and family do about our past, who we know, where we’ve been and what we were doing when we were there, etc.  It’s pretty amazing that a site with so much personal information has become so popular, and that we continue to give it information.  But it goes way beyond what most of us are aware of.

You know that little “Like” button that shows up all over the web? Yeah, the one you see on the right.  Seems innocuous enough, right?  Well, that little tiny tag gives Facebook access to a wealth of information.  Every web site that has that (or any Facebook-provided content) knows you’ve been to that page.  The very act of putting the Like button on a page grants Facebook access to the information that you’ve been there.  And nobody knows what they’re doing with that information.  Since this button has been installed on a ton of very popular web sites, it’s pretty easy for Facebook to be able to build a profile of most every web site you’ve been to.  Not that this in and of itself is necessarily a scary thing, but it does have the potential to be scary.  When combined with other information on your profile, it would be pretty easy to build a dossier on you.  Worst case scenario, they sell that information to advertisers, or their site gets hacked and your personal surfing habits get into the hands of someone with less than pure intentions.  With the huge breach that Sony experienced last month, these things are not outside the realm of possible reality.

Is there a way to prevent this?  Yes.  If you sign out of Facebook before visiting other web pages, and use the Private browsing mode of your web browser (InPrivate in IE, Incognito in Chrome, etc.) there isn’t a way for Facebook to be able to follow you around.  Just be careful not to sign in again without doing it in the private browsing mode.

And just so you know… “deleting” information from the Facebook site doesn’t actually delete it from their databases.  It just turns it off so that they don’t show it to others.  But they don’t actually ever remove anything on anyone.  They’ve still got it filed away.

Google

If anybody on the internet knows more about your surfing habits than Facebook, it’s Google.  Their advertising network extends to an absolutely massive number of web sites.  And every site that contains ads provided by Google is also tracked.  They hold onto an overwhelming majority of the online advertising market, and the odds are in their favor that any particular web site you visit has advertisements served by Google.  Chances are that Google knows every web site you ever visit.

Combine this with Google wanting to get into other aspects of your life… providing the operating system for your cell phone or tablet, Internet service to your home, keeping your Health information, maps for driving directions, etc. on top of virtually every web site you visit and every Internet search you perform (this would include anything you shop for online), they have access to a lot more data than anyone could ever imagine.  It has the potential to be very scary, and a huge mess if that data were to get out.

Why Care?

For the most part I don’t care if the web sites I visit are known to the world.  But there are a few exceptions… If I were to get sick, and use the Internet to search for treatment or cures, I wouldn’t want the whole world to know what I’ve got.  Or if I had children, I wouldn’t want total strangers to know where they live or go to school.  It isn’t that we necessarily have to worry about what we’re doing, but who knows what we’re doing.

I’m not trying to say that the sky is falling here or anything like that.  I just want everyone to at least be aware of what information these companies have access to.  It goes way beyond what they appear to know at first glance.  They’ve got connections with literally millions of web sites, and together they all collect a lot more information on you that you could possibly dream of.

If nothing else, I’d advise caution.  Use the Private mode of your browser more, or maybe even all of the time.  Use different browsers for different web sites.  Sign out of web sites when you aren’t actually using them.  And above all, be careful in what information you’re willing to share with them. 

Windows Phone 7

About 3 months ago I bought an HTC HD7 from T-Mobile to test to see if would meet my needs for a cell phone.  They were offering a deal where I only had to pay $99 and didn’t have to extend my contract, and since I had been curious about Windows Phone 7 I decided to give it a try.  I’ve wanted to share my thoughts, but I didn’t want to write a long drawn-out review, so instead I’ll just summarize some key points.

• It’s fast.  With the exception of a handful of apps (mostly games) that take a while to load, everything else about the phone is very fast.  Navigation from one place to another is just fast and fluid.  Compared to the iPhones and Android-based phones I’ve used, my WP7 is markedly faster.
  
  
• I like the interface.  Windows Phone 7 uses tiles on its main screen for launching its core feature set, like making calls, viewing texts and emails, calendar, etc.  Each tile is ‘active’ so it can display information tied to the feature provided by the tile.  So the email tile shows how many emails have come in since the last time I looked at them on my phone, the People tile shows pictures of those updating their Facebook status. The weather tile shows current temperature, etc.  You can create your own tiles, so the people I talk to most have tiles right on the front screen of my phone, which not only makes it easy to call or text them, but since those tiles are active, they are updated with current pictures, status messages from Facebook, and email information automatically.
  
  
• Along with that, the interface between apps is a lot more consistent than you find on other platforms.  Windows Phone 7’s Metro user interface is actually pretty slick, and an awful lot of developers are using it.  I won’t take time to describe how it works, but it is well thought out, and it makes navigation easier than on other phones.
  
  
• The Facebook integration is cool.  Right in my contact list I see status updates and pictures.  Twitter integration is coming in the fall, so we’ll be able to see Twitter updates right on a contact’s information screen (or their tile, if one has been created).  Since Facebook integration is built-in, it’s really easy to do things like upload photos and videos, because you do it right from the Camera app.
  
  
• There aren’t yet a ton of apps.  Fortunately, many of the most popular apps from other platforms are available.  There are some notables that I’d like to have that are missing, like LogMeIn, but there are very good apps for NetFlix, Amazon, Facebook, IMDB, all of the major news organizations, and YouTube to name a few.  The number of apps isn’t huge, but a lot of the more important ones are there.
  
  
• Having Microsoft Office onboard is cool, but I don’t use it much.  It’s still lacking a great way to connect with documents on the desktop if you aren’t using SharePoint.  Connecting to SkyDrive would be awesome.
  
  
• The email feature on Windows Phone 7 is easily the best that anyone is currently offering, especially if you’re someone who likes to use folders to organize your mail, or need the ability to search messages.  Email triage on WP7 is much better than it is on other phones.  It also handles file attachments much better than any other phone I’ve seen.  There isn’t another phone out there that even comes close when it comes to having great email support.
  
  
• Try-before-you-buy with apps is awesome.  There aren’t separate ‘free’ and ‘paid’ versions of apps.  You download one version to try it out (for as long as you’d like) and if you want to buy it, it’s usually a single button click to upgrade.  And upgrading from the trial to full version doesn’t require re-downloading; it just unlocks the paid features, and does so instantly.
  
  
• Xbox Live integration also has potential, but I’m not a gamer, so I don’t really use that very much.  If I were, it would be nice to play against others, or keep tabs on the status of an Xbox game I’m playing at home.  But having Xbox Live doesn’t really sway me at all.
  
  
• Stability.  This phone has never once crashed or locked up on me.  I’ve seen a couple apps crash here and there, but the phone always recovers gracefully.
  
  
• There are a lot of little things that are cool. 
  
  
  • The lock screen shows me how many emails and texts have come in that I haven’t read, as well as my next appointment, so I don’t even have to unlock my phone to see any of that information.
    
    
  • The phone doesn’t require a password to install app updates.
    
    
  • I love having a ‘back’ button.  No matter where I am, I can hit the Back button and go to whatever screen I just came from.  So if I’m reading an email message and it contains a web page link, I can view the page, then hit Back to go right back to the email and continue reading from there.  It works anywhere.
    
    
  • Having a dedicated search button on the phone is cooler than I thought it would be.  Many apps have their own search features, and the search button makes it easy to find it.
    
    
  • The on-screen keyboard is the smartest one I’ve seen.  Unlike other phones, which only offer correction of one word at a time, Windows Phone 7 looks an entire sentence at a time and will correct not only the word you’re currently typing, but other words in the sentence if a correction makes more sense in context.  Some might think this to be not very useful, but it allows you to absolutely fly through whatever you’re typing without stopping every time you make a mistake, letting the phone handle most correction for you.  It still isn’t perfect, but it is a better system than what is used on other phones.
    
    
  • Having a dedicated camera button is nice.  Even when the phone is off, I can press the camera button and the camera app loads instantly.  A second press of the button then takes a picture.  With most other phones, it’s easier to miss photo opportunities because by the time the camera app has loaded, the moment is gone.  On this phone, since Facebook is integrated too, from camera power off to taking a photo to uploading to Facebook is two button presses and two taps of the screen.
    
    
  • Wireless syncing with the Zune software is also nice.  If I’m in the living room watching a movie, for example, I can initiate a sync manually, or just plug the phone into a power source and syncing starts automatically. 
    
    
  • Background syncing is nice too.  Unlike most other phones, when it is syncing with the desktop it is still usable.  There are no visual indications on the phone that it is syncing with the computer.  There are a few restrictions… I can’t play music or install apps while it’s syncing, but everything else is fully operational.  I can still browse the web, make phone calls, play games, or read my email during a sync operation.
    
    
• There are a few things specific to the HD7 that aren’t available on other Windows Phone handsets that I like too.
  
  
  • It has a kickstand in the back to make it easier to watch video.  (I wish it would work in portrait mode as well as landscape, but having one is much better than not.)
    
    
  • I can set the phone to ring louder when it’s in my pocket vs. sitting on a desk.
    
    
  • I can put it in speakerphone mode just by turning it over face down.
    
    
  • When the phone rings, and I pick it up to see who it is, the ringer volume is automatically turned down (the act of picking up the phone turns the ringer volume down).
    
    
• I love having the Zune software on my phone.  Not just because it offers a much better interface than any iPod, but since I have a Zune Pass subscription, I have access to almost all of the Zune music catalog all of the time.  I don’t actually store any music on my phone at all.  If I want to listen to something, whether that be a particular song, album, or even an entire collection by a single artist, I just search for it in the Zune Marketplace and stream it.
  
  
  • What is really cool is using Shazam to tag a song playing somewhere near me, then using Zune Pass to download my own copy without buying it.  Since Shazam is linked to Zune, this is really easy.
    
    
• The built-in Bing search is nice (not quite as feature complete as I’d like to see, but that is supposed to be coming in the fall).  From the home screen, pressing the Search button gives quick access to device, web, local (nearby businesses, etc), and news in one fell swoop.  Searching for “hamburger,” for example, gives me search results for the web (Wikipedia, etc.), local (local restaurants that serve hamburgers, complete with driving directions), and news about hamburger.
  
  
• The built-in voice recognition feature is cool.  It’s powered by TellMe, so voice commands not only allow phone calls (“call Mom”), but web and local searches as well.  It’s essentially the Bing search using voice input.
  
  
• Battery life is actually very good, especially considering the physically small battery, compared to many other smartphones.  After a day of typical use, my battery still has about 50% charge remaining.
  
  
• It uses the Zune software on the desktop, which I love.  The Zune software is an example of how to do media management right.  Beats iTunes in every way (except OS X availability, which doesn’t bug me much). 
  
  If you haven’t tried the Zune software, just do it.  It’s totally free, and you don’t have to have a Zune device to use it.  It’s an order of magnitude faster than iTunes, is much easier to use, is just as feature complete, and much prettier.  If your iTunes library is still in its default location, the Zune software will even find and catalog it for you automatically.  Anyone with an open mind that sees it is very impressed.
  
  
• I haven’t dropped a single call with the phone yet.
  
  
• The web browser is okay.  Not great, but not bad either.  Nearly on par with the iPhone, but each device has its advantages.  Speed of scrolling and zooming is better on WP7.  Overall page download and rendering speed is somewhat better on iPhone.  Font rendering is better on WP7.  Page layout is noticeably better on iPhone.  The browser is certainly serviceable, but not a standout feature.  The upcoming Fall 2011 update for WP7 which will provide Internet Explorer 9 should go a long way in not only bring it truly up to par, but actually surpassing other smartphones in terms of browser features, page layout, and performance.

There are a number of things that drive me nuts.  I REALLY miss some of the features of my previous phone.

• I love the dial-by-name feature that my last 5 phones had.  Nobody understands what I mean until I demonstrate.  But if I wanted to dial myself, for example, instead of scrolling through a contact list to find my entry, or even using a search feature to find my contact information, at the dialer I could just type in my name on the number buttons (3684 for DOUG) and the contact would come up pretty fast, usually within 3-4 digits.  Of all of the ways I’ve ever seen to find entries in a phonebook, this is the fastest by far.  This same feature worked for partial phone numbers too, so if I remember that a phone number starts with 555, dialing 555 would show all phone numbers containing 555.  Windows Phone doesn’t have this feature (nor does Android or iPhone, for that matter).
  
  
• Custom ringtones.  I can set ringtones for individual contacts, but I can’t upload ringtones I’ve created.  I’ve used this feature extensively over the years, creating dedicated ringtones for individual callers using songs that have some sort of connection to that person.  I’ve heard this is coming in the Fall 2011 update for WP7, but haven’t seen confirmation on it.  Fingers are crossed.
  
  
• 5 of my last 6 phones had a feature that would automatically set the phone to Vibrate mode whenever an appointment on my calendar was active.  So if I had an appointment in my calendar from 12:00 to 2:00, the phone would go to vibrate mode at 12:00, and go back to the normal ringer at 2:00.  This one little thing made such a difference; I never had to worry about my phone going off during church, a meeting at the office, while doing sound for a concert, or while I’m on set shooting a video or recording audio in my studio.  Windows Phone (and likewise iPhone) doesn’t have this feature.
  
  
• My previous 5 phones all had great multitasking.  If I wanted an app (any app) to continue running in the background, I just didn’t close it; going back to the Home screen would leave the app running in the background.  If I wanted to close an app, I’d click the X in the upper right.  It was a very simple system, and it worked well.  Windows Phone doesn’t currently allow any third party apps to run in the background.  The coming fall update, thankfully, will allow any app developer to write certain portions of their apps to run in the background.  It’s a much better system than we get with the iPhone, which only allows certain features (navigation, audio, data upload, and VOIP) to run in the background.  The limited ‘multitasking’ of iOS bites me all of the time and it just makes me mad.  I’m really looking forward to having real multitasking again.
  
  
• Having the ringer and sound volume tied together bugs me.  On previous phones I could set the two independently… so my ringer could be set to a single volume level all of the time, and still be able to adjust music volume independently, for example.  I’ve missed more than a few phone calls because I had the phone volume turned down from watching a video or playing a game.
  
  
• While providing a lot of cool new functionality, the voice search is still missing features I had on my previous 5 phones and used constantly.  With my prior phones I could ask it “What is my next appointment” or “What time is it” and it knew what I was asking for and would respond vocally.  This was most useful in my truck, where I have a Bluetooth speakerphone kit.
  
  
• I also had my previous 5 phones set to read me incoming text messages and high priority email messages aloud.  This phone doesn’t do that.
  
  
• I really miss the WiFi tethering feature I had on my last two phones (or Bluetooth tethering from my last 5 phones) to provide Internet access to a nearby computer or other device.  Unlike most phones that offer tethering, the models I’ve had until now did it without a fee from the carrier.  The fall update for WP7 is rumored to have tethering, but I still have seen any official confirmation on that.  And I’ll have to pay a monthly fee to access it.
  
  
• As excellent as the on-screen keyboard is, I loved having Swype on my previous phone.  Being able to select different keyboards for different purposes would be nice.
  
  
• I miss having a dedicated Talk button.  Now I have to navigate back to the home screen and press the Phone tile, which takes longer.  On my last 5 phones, not only could I start a phone call at any time, but in certain contexts, pressing the Talk button would call the phone number of the on-screen contact, or the sender of the text or email message I’m currently reading.  Sometimes dedicated hardware buttons are just the right way to do things.

Other wishes

• I don’t find myself using the front facing camera on my iPod Touch or iPad very often, but it would be nice to have one in a phone for those few occasions where I do.  With Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Skype, I’d be surprised if we don’t see front-facing cameras in future models.
  
  
• I wish it had a dock-style connector so I could easily charge it, get audio and video out of it, and control it with a remote in my truck over a single connector. A Zune dock connector in addition to the now industry-standard micro USB would have been nice.
  
  
• Obviously, we still need more apps.  While there are quite a few to choose from, there are still a few key ones that I’d love to have that aren’t available yet.
  
  
• Not specific to Windows Phone, but T-Mobile’s 3G has slowed down in the last year.  It’s still faster than Verizon’s, but not as fast as AT&T’s.  I would have liked to have access to T-Mobile’s 4G network, but there are only a couple phones with 4G capability, and none are Windows Phone-based. 
  
• The camera, while good, is not great.  Definitely not as good as the camera in the iPhone 4, for example.  But pretty typical for a smartphone camera.

Overall I'm mostly more excited about what Windows Phone 7 can be more than what it currently is.  It is certainly a usable, competitive, and useful smartphone in its present state, but it is going to be a much better product after the Mango update that is supposed to be coming this Fall.  

Buyer Recommendations

So would I recommend a Windows Phone to someone?  For some, yes.  For others, no.  It depends on what you want out of a phone.  If you want the best music player you can get, absolutely.  If the idea of having streaming access to a multi-million song catalog of music all the time, yes.  If you primarily want quick and easy access to email, absolutely yes.  If you need Microsoft Office, again, yes.  If you need multitasking, not yet; wait until the end of the year, or go Android if you can’t wait.  If you need an app only available in Apple’s App Store, obviously, no.  If you’re a Facebook junkie, yes.  If you need a good camera, buy a camera and stop trying to use a phone; great optics don’t fit in something the size of a phone.  If you need WiFi tethering, go with an Android.  If you primarily want to browse the web, WP7 is okay, but some Android devices support Flash.

As it stands now, the reason to buy the different smartphone platforms are:

Windows Phone 7: High performance, very easy to use, very quick access to email, Microsoft Office, Xbox Live, Facebook integration, and access to Zune Pass.  If you want a smartphone primarily for email, WP7 is easily your best option.  Provides the best media playback experience.

Android: Real multitasking, tons of free apps, huge variety of phones.

iPhone: Tons of very good apps in the App Store, only device capable of playing paid video content from iTunes.  iTunes syncing for those who actually like iTunes.

Reasons to not buy…

Windows Phone 7: Number of apps is still low compared to the other platforms.  No multitasking of third party apps whatsoever.  Sync software on Mac has limited capabilities.

Android: Despite all of Google’s efforts, the user interface is still clunky and inconsistent, especially between apps.  Phone upgrades are sparse after newer models come out.

iPhone: Limited “multitasking.”  Still drops calls more than other phones.  iTunes is still an absolute abomination on Windows, not much better on Mac.  And Steve Jobs is still an evil man.